


butterfly wings

by peachylimee



Category: Devilman (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, Fluff and Angst, M/M, follows OVA/manga, self aware ryo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22325692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachylimee/pseuds/peachylimee
Summary: The butterfly effect is a long, over emphasized term for the ripple effect our actions have. The term comes from the idea that something as small as the gust from a butterfly’s wings can change the world, as it can cause a chain reaction. Perhaps it causes a series of rather unfortunate effects, or perhaps it cures a disease. Maybe the gust rustles a leaf, disturbing a branch that houses a bird, who decides to make your roof it’s new nesting spot. Now you have baby birds singing in your window at 6am, all from a simple butterfly. An inconvenience as such must be taken care of, so you try to carefully remove them, but your ladder step breaks and you fall. You break your neck and die. All from a simple butterfly, you lost your life. This can apply to your own actions, small actions creating larger than life effects years later. However, for as easy as it is to discuss in theory, you never realize how these small actions will affect you in the moment.
Relationships: Asuka Ryo | Satan/Fudo Akira, Kuroda "Miko" Miki & Makimura Miki
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

The butterfly effect is a long, over emphasized term for the ripple effect our actions have. The term comes from the idea that something as small as the gust from a butterfly’s wings can change the world, as it can cause a chain reaction. Perhaps it causes a series of rather unfortunate effects, or perhaps it cures a disease. Maybe the gust rustles a leaf, disturbing a branch that houses a bird, who decides to make your roof it’s new nesting spot. Now you have baby birds singing in your window at 6am, all from a simple butterfly. An inconvenience as such must be taken care of, so you try to carefully remove them, but your ladder step breaks and you fall. You break your neck and die. All from a simple butterfly, you lost your life. This can apply to your own actions, small actions creating larger than life effects years later. However, for as easy as it is to discuss in theory, you never realize how these small actions will affect you in the moment. 

It’s the little things that you don’t place much value in that change your life. As was the case for a young Akira Fudo. A kind hearted boy, learning at a young age to take care of those around you after being taken in by the Makimura household. He was everything a mother hoped her young boy to be, an empath to a fault. He was bullied for his care for others, called horrible names at just age 7 for not being manly. Despite his housemate, Miki’s, encouragement to toughen up a bit he never attempted to change. He cared for other people more than he cared for himself most of the time, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the adults in his life. He wanted others to smile, a trait that led him to end up seated next to a lonesome boy at lunch.

Unlike all of his classmates, he had light blond hair and bright blue eyes. He wore slightly higher end clothing and a pair of big, round glasses that looked too big for his face. He had just moved to town, with his father who was apparently a famous professor, or that’s what everyone in his grade said. The boy was only a year older than him, but was treated like he was a danger to all of the other kids for his different appearance. The younger of the two, as he told Miki, thought that was stupid. So, as if without a care in the world, the boy sat down with his homemade lunch. He didn’t take notice at the time, but for all of his fancy clothing, had a school bought lunch.

Somehow, with both confidence and an air of timidity, Akira said. “Hi..! My name’s Akira! What’s your name?”

The older boy looked at him, a look of shock that quickly softened back into indifference. He bet that this was some weird bet, to see if he would bite this kid’s head off. A name wasn’t hurting anyone though, he guessed. “I’m Ryo, just call me that.”

Ryo was too busy stabbing at mashed potatoes to look back and notice the grin on Akira’s face, one of his signature ‘It actually worked!’ grins. He felt impressed with himself for learning the boys’ name, something that so far only third graders knew. With newfound arrogance, he said “I want to be your best friend.”

This time, Ryo openly stared at Akira to finally take in his appearance. A small, barely 50 pound boy, who’s face brought Ryo the weirdest feeling. A mix of sadness and longing, foreign to the 8 year old boy. He would come to know the name of this feeling later in life, but the feeling of nostalgia welled up within him. Unwilling to feel this anymore, he turned back to his watery mashed potatoes. Finally shoveling a spoonful into his mouth, he took a few seconds to swallow the food before saying in an indifferent tone. “G’luck with that.”

“I won’t give up!” Akira said even still, a look of determination painting his face in spite of the blond's apathy to his kindness. 

“Okay.” Ryo gave him a shrug, still sure of the falsehood of Akira’s statements. This was a dare, or a bet, or something. He hadn't had friends, something about him always scared the other children away. He couldn't pin down why, but he was treated like an outsider, no matter where he went. Maybe it was the fact that he was always the new kid in town, something his father promised would stop, or maybe it was his own fault. He didn't know why he was treated like a threat, but he had grown used to it. A frail younger boy certainly wasn't genuinely interested, maybe he was just trying to prove his bravery to friends and bullies alike. But for what reason, in the end, Ryo didn't care. He was certain this was a trick, and he wouldn't have to deal with it much longer. People growing tired of him was a given.

Little did Ryo know that Akira had already blown a single leaf, on a tree branch in the middle of suburbia the wrong way. That just like the butterfly before him, a tragedy bigger than anything the young boys could think of was brewing, with only a wave of nostalgia as a premonition of what was to befall them.


	2. Chapter 2

This was almost too much for the young Ryo Asuka. A boy so used to his dad being gone at work, being completely isolated with his own thoughts and loud superhero shows on the television. A boy with no mother to speak of, having left so many years ago. A boy who scared other children, being socially isolated by everyone he knew, now was being hunted down by the smallest boy in his grade and known crybaby. An irony that was not lost on Ryo, but still annoyed him nonetheless. He still couldn’t put his faith in Akira, who had been desperately trying to befriend him for two weeks now.

On this particularly cloudy Thursday, Ryo sat picking at the last traces of life in the form of wilting flowers before winter settled itself in. Fall was starting to kick in, and Ryo wanted the remains of summer for himself. As he picked diligently filling the pages of a book with flowers, he heard a voice from behind. Without even having to look, he knew it’s owner immediately. 

“Why are you crushing them?” Akira Fudo said, genuinely sounding upset over Ryo’s treatment of the flowers. Walking up from behind, he sat and started to pick them as well.

“To preserve them, they last longer pressed, dad says.” Ryo started to explain, but already knew it was too late to explain his methods when he saw Akira’s usage of the flowers.

With three placed strategically in his hair, he gave the blond boy a toothy grin. “But isn’t this more fun?”

Before Ryo can even speak, Akira places a flower behind his own ear now. The younger boy chuckled as Ryo brought a hand up to feel it, causing Ryo to finally say in a quiet voice. “I guess it is.”

The gratification on Akira’s face as he finally got the other boy to acknowledge him almost made Ryo want to actually let himself enjoy the company of another person. It felt natural to him, a certain warmth filled him, as if he was feeling an old feeling. It made him feel a certain comfort he never had, and the fear almost left him briefly. That is, until a group of boys from his own grade came up to the pair.

The tallest had dark, short hair. He stared at Akira with venom that Ryo had never seen directed towards himself, an odd testament towards how he off put other children around him. The boy spoke with a smirk, saying. “Asuka, do you want to come play with us?”

Akira looked almost crestfallen. Sure, he had Miki, but he had worked so hard to befriend this boy. He looked ready to cry as they awaited an answer. Ryo was still picking flowers as he said to the group of other boys. “Don’t you have eyes?”

The tallest boy looked flabbergasted for a moment, the boys behind him sharing a look of shock. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“I’m already spending time with Akira.” He says, not looking up as he places a flower directly on top of the raven’s head. Akira knew that would never stay, but he appreciated the effort Ryo showed.

The other boys didn’t seem to make much fuss as they left with their tails between their legs, leaving the two boys to continue their efforts of capturing the last remains of summer, something that would become a tradition for the two. From that day on, Miki swore that Akira changed fundamentally as a person. The pair became inseparable, something Akira never had with anyone else. He was always treated as Miki’s annoying brother by her other friends, a fact that weighed on the young boy. 

Even with Ryo’s initial distance, he was never treated as less than. And Ryo? He was a lonely, lonely child, as soon as he let himself, he was stuck like glue to Akira. They almost always decided to stay at Ryo’s place, being the large and mostly parentless home that it was. The two had freedom to do anything they wanted as long as it wasn’t too destructive. Most of the time, it was just Ryo ordering enough pizza to cure world hunger and showing Akira the new video games that his father bought him to sate his son’s sadness. One clunky controller apiece, laying on the edge of Ryo’s too large bed surrounded by boxes of extra cheesy pizza, the 11 year old boys might as well be in heaven. 

The two were playing happily on an early summer’s evening, smiles from cheek to cheek as the boys took turns taunting each other. Akira nudged his friend gently after winning another round of some racing game Ryo had just gotten. “That’s two to two, Asuka!”

Ryo looked at Akira’s smile, and a sense of utter thankfulness washed over him. His best, and only, friend in the world happened to be someone so genuinely sweet. For whatever reason, Akira never seemed to be scared of Ryo. He let the other boy be himself in a way that no one else ever had, something that hadn’t changed in their 4 years of friendship. With a reinvigorated grin, Ryo giggled out. “You’re going down, Fudo.”

Despite all of his big talk, Ryo didn’t end up winning that night. That night started a long held Asuka-Fudo tradition of tallying their wins for the day up, and at the end of the summer the loser had to pay for milkshakes at their favorite burger joint. On this particular late summer evening, 15 year old Ryo Asuka was paying for two extra large milkshakes and a batch of fries. Watching the younger teen dip fries in his strawberry milkshake, he didn’t bother to complain about having to pay. At this point in his life, he had only ever seen one person in the way he saw Akira. He couldn’t help but notice that he found his friend of nearly ten years to fit the bill of how other men describe women, more than any woman he had ever seen. It was almost ridiculous how pretty he thought Akira was, in fact.

He tried not to think about this fact too much, the idea that he was in love with his best friend was too much for a boy his age. Plus, Akira had always made him feel funny. A pang of longing, emotions that he was always too young to understand. He never had a reference for what friends should make you feel though, and as he truly started to age he realized that it wasn’t this. Akira didn’t have to do much, a bat of his lashes and Ryo was dipping back into daddy’s money for them. Not like he abused his power, he didn’t even know he had it, but Ryo knew.

Ryo knew that he would do just about anything for his friend, but he didn’t know where this intense feeling even came from. If it was just a crush, why would he have such depressing thoughts, of the lengths he would go to for Akira?

This new set of questions left his mind when Akira broke their comfortable silence. He let out a long sigh, laying his head down dramatically. “We’re gonna be seperated, Ryo.”

He was trying not to think of that.

“It’s not like we’ll never speak again.” He says, trying to calm his own fears as well.

“Yeah, but won’t it be lame for you to hang out with a dumb middle schooler?” Akira picks his head up slightly, looking up at Ryo with doe eyes.

Ryo huffs, looking away. “Like anyone would be around to make fun of me.” He shrugs, adding. “Plus, out of all the dumb middle schoolers in the world, it’s you. ‘m not just gonna ditch you.”

Akira perks up at that, giving him a soft smile. Ryo wants to die at that moment, at least it would be at Akira’s hands that way. What a dark thought, he almost lets out a sigh at that. He’d have to curb those thoughts. “You should know by now I wouldn’t forget about you, remember when I moved to middle school?”

“I try not to..” His cheeks heat up in embarrassment, and he looks away.

“You cried for 2 hours! But you still came over every weekend for sleepovers, I didn’t forget about you.” He says, not realizing how quiet his voice got at the end. “I couldn’t.”

“I believe you.” He says finally, flashing him a toothy grin.

God. He had no idea why that smile made him feel so happy. All he ever wanted was to protect Akira, he cared little about much else. He had always gotten perfect grades without trying, he had always been a model student with no friends but Akira, who had his own friends but still opted to stay attached to Ryo by the waist at all times. He was lucky, if he was honest. 

This fact never really changed, Akira still would rather sit in the library at lunch with Ryo than at the cafeteria. Akira still would spend all of their breaks together, always cursing that Ryo was a grade above him. And Ryo’s care only grew, as he became a senior and Akira a junior. Ryo didn’t want any other friends, as much as Miki insisted he was weird for this fact. He was comfortable with this, just him and Akira. Now, instead of just eating pizza, the two of them would break open Ryo’s father’s liquor cabinet at sleepovers. The experience was always fun, even if Ryo had to be careful not to drink enough to reveal his feelings. It was a fine line between having fun and ruining his life, after all, and Ryo had become quite the tight ropist as he grew older. On this particular Friday night, Akira had had just a bit too much to drink.

“Ryoo,” He whines. “I wanna play a game.”

“Okay?” Ryo quirks his head.

“Okay, truth, d’you wanna get married?”

Huh?????? This was not something Ryo expected tonight.

“You’re 17, Akira.” He responds, not wanting to say either or.

“That’s not a no!” He giggles, moving a bit closer.

Ryo stands, gesturing for Akira to lay down. “You should sleep, you’ve had a lot tonight, Aki.” 

Ryo moves to turn off the lights, trying to take a spot on the floor but being stopped by a hand gripping his wrist.

“Stay with me.”

Ryo turns to tell him no, but he’s greeted with those doe eyes that drive him crazy. He feels a pang, a pang of something that feels like nostalgia. Maybe it was nostalgia for a past sleepover? But no...it didn’t feel like that. It felt like he felt emotions he never had had before, grief. As if he longed for someone who had died long ago, but Akira was right here. Alive and safe, and acting odd as hell tonight. He sighs, laying next to Akira without a word. He hopes he can push this feeling down.

Akira giggles, snuggling into him. “Don’t leave, promise?”

“Promise.” Ryo says, trying not to show how much he liked this. Akira was just drunk, really.

“Good. Tomorrow, before I go home, I wanna put more flowers in your hair.”

And that was when Ryo knew he was in over his head.


End file.
